Darkness Falls
by Arian Arch
Summary: A new darkness is approaching the Wizarding World, not that of a Dark Lord but one more sinister embedded within the wizarding society Aurors Potter and Granger are assigned a case which they just can't seem to wrap their heads around but are convinced that something far more ominous is headed their way.If only it was another Dark Lord they could fight. Non-Epilogue Compliant
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 - New Moon**

23rd September 2003, 11:08 PM

Harry lay in his bed in the newly renovated 12 Grimauld Place; which had taken two years even with the help of Magic. For the first few years after the end of the Second Battle of Hogwarts, Harry had moved in with Andromeda Tonks to help her raise his God-son Theodore 'Teddy' Remus Lupin.

It was only two years ago when Teddy turned five that he thought it was high time to get a place of his own. Initially Harry had considered rebuilding his parent's home in Godric's Hollow but then decided against it as the ruins symbolized much more to the wizarding world than just the Potter Residence.

He had then decided to move in to one of the Black's or Potter's other homes which he had inherited from his Parents and Sirius but considering the fact that most of the properties were either in small hamlets, towns or far in the country he decided against them as well. This left Grimauld Place.

While Harry didn't have the best of memories associated with the house, he knew that he didn't have anywhere else to go which would remind him of home. Two years ago Harry had moved into 12 Grimauld Place with two trunks and a batty old House-Elf. While Kreacher had been excited to return, Harry grimaced as soon as he heard Sirius' mother cursing from behind the veiled portrait.

The first thing Harry did was use the severing charm on the wall on which the portrait had been stuck. He then magically reduced the size of the cut out wall, put it in a trunk that he found in the basement and cast a permanent silencing charm on it. With that done, he then vanished the severed heads of the House Elves that were mounted on plaques on the flight of stairs to reduce the grimness and foreboding of the house.

Satisfied with himself, Harry then took too find a room for himself. The last three times Harry had stayed here he had always shared a room with Ron or slept in the Living room. This time however, he had decided to find a room for himself.

While his first thought however had been to take Sirius' old room, he decided against it as the memories of his Godfather would never allow him to sleep and constantly remind him of his Godfather falling through the veil in the Department of Mysteries. Harry then scouted several rooms on all three floors of the house finally deciding upon taking Sirius' grandfather's room for himself which was least Slytherin like and saw a lot of Light throughout the day with an entire wall of glass.

Once settled in his new room, Harry gave Andromeda and Mrs Weasley the responsibility to get his new home renovated and Bill the responsibility to secure the place for his friends and family in a time of need.

Two years down the line, 12 Grimauld Place on the inside looked nothing like it had done two years ago much to Kreacher's chagrin but nevertheless if it pleased Harry, Kreacher wasn't going to start complaining.

It was Half-past Eleven at night when Harry felt his Auror's badge tingle with heat. Even though the badge wasn't on his person it had been charmed to make the bearer aware of a call to duty.

Harry got up from his bed and made his way to the large oak dresser against the wall opposite to the glass wall. As he neared the dresser he saw his badge glowing a bright red.

 _Murder_ , was the first thought that crossed Harry's mind as he saw the badge glow red. In addition to being charmed to make their bearer's aware of their duty, the badges were also charmed to warn them as to what they were being called in to investigate.

A Red Glow predominantly meant that blood had been spilt.

Harry walked in to his closet and changed into his Auror's robes after taking a quick shower. He then walked back to his dresser and tapped the middle drawer thrice while reciting an inaudible spell under his breath. The drawer's lock clicked and it opened to reveal the young Auror's personal collection of magical artifacts.

Harry considered taking his invisibility cloak but then decided against it since this wasn't an espionage or tracking mission. His hand then went to three boxes kept one beside the other, the three boxes which hosted the other three wands that he owned in addition to his Holly and Phoenix feather wand.

Harry put his hand on the first box feeling a vague sense of familiarity and warmth from it. His own wand too tingled at the sensation and spread a warmth through his being. While the two wands together were powerful Harry had never been comfortable using them together or the other wand singularly except for when he was on the chase to put Jugson behind bars.

That was the first and last time he had used both wands together as it was the need of the hour. That had been a year and a half ago and the power had been nearly overwhelming.

Harry withdrew his hand from the first box and proceeded to open the third box not even sparing a second glance on the box in the middle. As soon as Harry withdrew the wand from his box, he felt a deep sense of loyalty from it. This had once been Draco's wand but Harry had won it's Allegiance in a duel and thus the sense of loyalty that the wand seemed to emanate.

Harry locked the drawer and stowed both wands in their holsters.

He then called Kreacher and configured the wards to not let anyone but a few in, while he was out of the house. Harry then took the badge in his hand and disapparated, the badge acting as a portkey which would take him to the safest apparation point closest to the crime site.

With a loud crack Harry disapparated only to re-appear in what he thought was a Suburban house just outside of London. He seemed to have apparated in the Kitchen. With wand in hand Harry proceeded to the Living room where several people were speaking in slow hushed tones.

As he walked to the Living room, the smell of Fresh blood hit his nostrils and he could almost taste the metallic stench on the tip of his tongue.

 _Definitely murder_ , he thought to himself as he entered the Living room to find the entire carpet bathed in blood and two mangled bodies lying on it.

A couple of other wizards who he recognized from work were there, with Hermione being the only Witch. Harry nodded and walked towards her.

"What happened here?" He asked her, as they observed a mediwizard analyze the bodies while the hit wizards gathered all manner of evidences.

"The Department of Improper Use of Magic detected the use of an unidentified Hex in this suburb where they didn't have a record of any Magical families except for a Muggleborn child who lived in this very house." She said, her voice growing small with every word.

Harry observed the expressions on the face of the two adults, that of pain and suffering but not that of the Cruciatus Curse. The cuts on the father's body seemed to be the cause of the pooling of blood and his apparent death.

Bile rose in Harry's mouth as he stepped forward and crouched to observe the cuts. They seemed like slashes which were meant to bleed. He knew of one such curse and had even used it a couple of times but only once by accident.

"The woman was killed by a werewolf" announced the mediwizard in a somewhat sombre voice to the Aurors and the Hit Wizards.

"The man was cursed" Harry said in a flat tone, his gaze unfaltering from the the slashes across the man's body.

"How do you know she was killed by a werewolf?" Hermione asked the mediwizard walking up to the victim to observe the injuries that the mediwizard was pointing to.

"You see the gashes on her throat. It seemed the werewolf killed her by ripping her throat out plus this potion hear reveals the presence of werewolf venom on a wound." the Mediwizard said confidently.

"Why would a werewolf come out and kill her. It isn't even a Full moon, on the contrary it's a New Moon night." She argued.

"Beats me" said the mediwizard, shrugging and gathering the blood samples from the body.

Hermione simply shook her head in annoyance and noted everything down in a pad.

"What curse do you think the man was killed by Potter?" asked Auror Mallory from behind him. Mallory was a senior Auror who was one of the leaders of resistance within the Ministry during the Second Wizarding War.

"Difficult to say Sir but it's not one on records. Looks like someone invented it and decided not to share it." Harry said, looking at Hermione pointedly while saying the latter and then averted his gaze to meet that of the Senior Auror.

"Have we had any luck on finding the child." Hermione asked the Senior Auror, her voice full of concern.

"We have a couple of Aurors looking for him but they haven't reported back on anything." Mallory said.

"Wouldn't the kid still have the trace on him." Harry questioned, surprised at what Mallory had just said.

Mallory sighed, "He does but we can't seem to track him with it." He then looked directly at Hermione, "We seem to have lost him."

"Lost him?" She asked.

"Yes Ms Granger." Mallory re-asserted, "It seems to us that the boy has vanished without a trace."

Harry didn't know what to think but he knew for sure that something wasn't right. An hour passed before the wizards decided there was nothing more for them to do here. They re-created the scene to mimic one of a thief breaking in and killing both the adults so as to not leave any seed of suspicion when the muggle police come looking.

The wizards began to disapparate one by one. Before disapparating Harry signaled to Hermione to meet him back at Grimauld Place. The night had just started.

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	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 - A Wave of Magic**

24th September 2003, 9:58 PM

Harry sat in the parlor of his home. His plate of food and tumbler of firewhiskey lay untouched before him on the table.

Deep in his thoughts, Harry tried to string together all the facts that he had heard and the things that he had observed in one coherent line of thought. He started from the time when Hermione came to his home last night from the crime scene of the muggles murdered in their house, their six year old magically gifted son _missing._

Kreacher had brought them wine in the Library which also doubled as his study from time to time. Together Harry and Hermione tried to decipher the Riddle that lay in front of them. It was after a couple of hours of brainstorming that they realized it was all very simple when put into perspective.

The first link in the chain was the Six-Year old Muggleborn Wizard child. The child's parents had been murdered by a wizard (or witch as Hermione pointed out) and a werewolf working together. It was also quite possible they had taken the wizarding child with them and hidden in a place where they would be hard to trace, after all the Trace was least effective in places where several witches and wizards were present and it was highly difficult to differentiate the magic of one from another.

While the theory seemed quite straightforward, there were several questions that were left unanswered. The chief amongst them was, Why would anyone bother to keep the muggle born child alive? This question was then followed by another one from Harry, if the sole objective was to obtain the child and do away with the parents. The two then agreed on the fact that may be the plan was to obtain the child but was poorly executed by those who were assigned to do the task.

The final question remained was , "Why?". The answer to which would only be obtained when they would find the culprit.

Hermione had also suggested that they involve Ron and Neville as they both could help on the matter. Also, they needed to find out if any other Muggleborn children had gone missing as well in the last couple of weeks.

While the latter was primarily Harry's gut telling him that it this wasn't a one off incident, Hermione was quite convinced that they were dealing with someone clever but not really good at covering their tracks. To Err is Human, but they were dealing with a Wizard or a Witch and people of magical descent hardly ever made mistakes like these. They simply made bad choices as Hermione put it with a smirk playing on her lips.

A smile creeped upon Harry's lips. Never could he have imagined Hermione to throw a smirk so casually. He had known her for over a decade now and she was the closest thing that he had to a family, a sister even but the fact remained that Hermione was a changed woman.

Gone was the bookish, kind, righteous, idealistic, head strong and know it all Girl who he had met on the Hogwarts Express at the age of eleven. Titled as the brightest and most powerful witch of the Age, Hermione ensured that she lived up to her title. Not only had she a won the European Duelling championship, Hermione was also the only Witch to complete a Mastery in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes in addition to her Auror Training.

However, what surprised Harry the most was Hermione's current partner.

Never in a million years could Harry have imagined Hermione to fall for the charms of one Draco Malfoy, Pureblood Supremacist and Ex-Death Eater.

He still remembered the day when Hermione had invited him, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna to a quaint muggle pub in London to introduce her new boyfriend. All of them had known that Hermione had been dating someone for the past few months and they had suspected she was dating a Muggle. It had seemed like a probability then. She had been spending a lot of time in the Muggle World in comparison to the Wizarding World due to her assignments.

Harry remembered the day like yesterday, the five of them walked into the crowded pub with beer flying all over the place and loud blaring music threatening deafness on their ears but nothing could have prepared them for what they saw next. Sitting at the bar was Hermione with a blonde haired man, their lips locked in a kiss with Hermione's arms around the man's neck.

Nothing could have prepared them for that and even more so, nothing could have prepared them for what Ron did next. Filled with anger, Ron had walked up to the lovestruck (or lust-struck as Ron called it) couple, pulled Hermione away and punched Malfoy in the face.

Harry burst out laughing while reminiscing of the past. No, he'd never be able to forget that day.

Reaching out for his tumbler, Harry brought it close to his parted lips and took a generous swig from it. The Whiskey burned down his throat but also spread a warmth and calmness over his being. Taking another sip, he was about to start on his meal when his Cell Buzzed with a Text.

Unlocking his phone with a swipe, he saw the text was from Hermione. She wanted to know if she could drop by with Neville and Draco to discuss the case further, Ron had declined stating that he had enough cases assigned to him already and would like to pass on this one.

Draco while not an Auror, was a Dark Arts Specialist with a Mastery in Advanced Potions, Arithmancy and most recently Ancient Runes.

Harry quickly replied that it was alright for them to drop by whenever they wanted and returned to his meal.

An hour later while Harry sat in the Library going through the notes and some of the deductions made from the evidence collected from the Crime Scene, he heard the chime on the Fire Place in the Lounge alerting him to the arrival of people who were permitted to enter his home. He didn't bother to get up from his seat to welcome his guests knowing that Kreacher or one of the elves would show them in to the Study.

As assumed, a couple of minutes later Kreacher did show in the three guests.

Harry waved to them to seat themselves anywhere in the room they found comfortable. Neville took to the lounge seat next to the fireplace opposite from Harry while Draco and Hermione took the love-seat opposite the grate.

"Kreacher, fetch us some wine please. It might be a long night." Harry told Kreacher politely knowing the Elf already had refreshments coming up.

"Kreacher knew Master was expecting guests and thus asked Moira to prepare refreshments well in advance" the old elf croaked and like clockwork a younger pair of elves wearing spotless white togas apparated into the room carrying a platter of snacks and two bottles of mulled red wine with goblets.

The Elves set the platters and the wine down on the Coffee Table, tended to the fire and disapparated.

"So, while I would have preferred this to be a social visit I know you are here to discuss yesterday's case." Harry said, primarily addressing Hermione since she was the one who had requested the four of them to meet.

Hermione sighed and then turned her attention to the table where the bottles of wine were left by the elves. With a snap of her fingers, the corks disappeared and then she waved her hand elegantly which caused the bottles to levitate from where they were kept, tilt and pour precisely half a glass for each person present into the room.

If the men in the room were impressed by Hermione's command on non verbal magic none of them showed it. Hermione then waved her hand in a different motion which caused two of the glasses of wine to levitate across the room to Harry and Neville while Draco reached out for his own and Hermione just levitated the remaining one to herself.

Taking a sip from her glass, Hermione said, "I haven't been able to find any other reports of muggleborns disappearing in the country and while I know you think the same as I that this is not a one off incident, research seems to suggest otherwise."

"I beg to differ" Draco said, "while this may be the first time that you have seen a muggleborn child disappearance on abduction it wouldn't be the first time in the History of the Wizarding World." he further added.

"I agree" Neville seconded, " for centuries there have been wizards and wizarding families that have abducted muggleborns while they were young so that they could be introduced in to our society early on. These people thought that wizarding children no matter who their parents were should be with their own kind. They feared that muggleborns trained in sorcery would turn against the wizarding society as they might be influenced by their parents who belong to a Muggle Society."

"Neville, while that makes sense…wouldn't that be happening more often then ?" Hermione questioned.

"Not necessarily." Draco answered, "Neville is talking about a time which predates Grindelwald and Voldemort" Draco said…his discomfort on saying the latter wizard's name evident to the other people in the room.

"Grindelwald and Voldemort both were extremely anti-muggleborn, their teachings corrupted the minds of multiple generations of pureblood families the result of which you have seen and suffered first hand" Draco said looking looking at Hermione while taking her hand in his own and giving it a gentle squeeze to apologize for what happened in the past between them.

"So you are saying that this was some kind of pureblood agenda in the past before the rise of Grindelwald?" Harry asked.

"I wouldn't go to the extent of calling it an Agenda Harry." Neville said, before taking another swig from his glass.

"Yes, it was never a part of the Pureblood agenda." Draco said, agreeing with the other pureblood in the room. He then got up from beside Hermione and walked towards the grate and turned so he could face the other people in the room while he spoke. "You have to understand that distrust against the muggleborns was something that was propagated by several members of the wizarding society. Slytherin himself distrusted them and that was the reason he never took any muggleborns into his house. True he did make some exceptions but those were extremely rare and far in between."

"It was the Families outside the influence of House of Slytherin were the ones which were primarily involved with muggleborn rehabilitation." Neville deadpanned, to address the elephant in the room.

Harry was genuinely taken aback, till now he thought that taking away muggleborn children was in line with some kind of pureblood agenda and it made sense to him when he thought about pureblood ideologies in general but Draco had made a point which he had overlooked and therefore what Neville said made perfect sense to him.

Hermione on the other hand was doing a great job at hiding her surprise. Silence fell across the room as everyone finished their glass of wine.

It was after several minutes when Harry broke the silence, "So it seems our usual list of suspects won't be quite helpful here then."

Draco smiled, "May be some of the people on that list of yours could point you in the direction that you want to head in." He said, as he walked towards the table to fetch the bottle of wine to pour another glass for himself, after which he asked if anyone else wanted another glass.

Hermione poured a glass for herself while Draco filled Neville's glass.

Harry politely declined the wine and switched back to firewhiskey.

Silence echoed through the room, only to be broken when Neville, Harry and Hermione felt their Auror badges tingle with Heat again. Harry's badge was in his suite but Hermione's was on her person. She took her badge out from within the pocket of her pants, which was glowing a bright Orange. It was a _Warning, a code for Disruptive Magic being used in a Muggle Populated Area._

The four wizards exchanged glances before they disapparated to where they were required. Harry, Neville and Hermione directly to the crime scene while Draco went to Malfoy Manor.

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	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 - God's Own Children**

25th September 2003, 00:24 AM

Their Auror badges apparated them to a dark alleyway in a borough outside of London. The night air had a chill to it, heralding that winter was coming. The wizards and witches cast a charm to keep themselves warm and then walked out of the alley.

"Where do you think we are?" Neville asked the other two, whispering the question.

"Richmond" Hermione answered, "I have been here before" she further added, holding her badge in her hand as it led them to where they were required.

Wizarding Technology had improved manifold over the last couple of years and significant advancements had been made especially in the Auror Division to better equip them so they could carry out their duty even better and be prepared for any scenario.

The three aurors walked towards their assignment, Hermione in the lead with Neville and Harry following her close behind, their wands at a ready to react at a moment's notice.

After what seemed like a 25 minute walk from the centre of the town to a residential area, the three found themselves in front of a three story building , designed as per the Italianate style.

"The Asylum for God's Own Children", Harry whispered just loud enough for his friends to hear.

"The Department of Instportation doesn't seem to have completely mapped out all the Boroughs yet" Neville said, slightly out of breath.

"Couldn't agree more." Hermione concurred as she began walking towards what seemed like an abandoned building with Harry and Neville following closely behind her. She turned into a small alley where a couple of old empty dumpsters sat, the iron rusted.

She cast a quick _scourgify_ and then tapped her auror badge which glowed a pale blue, adding a temporary apparation point for any Hit Wizards or Aurors who were yet to answer the call or were walking towards their destination like them. The Badges would automatically apparate them to the new apparation point saving them some time.

Almost instantly three other wizards and two witches appeared with the resounding crack of apparation.

"Thanks Hermione", said one of the witches who Harry recognized to be Susan Bones. "I had been walking for ten minutes already and wasn't sure how much longer it would take me to get here."

Harry did the math in his head, there were four aurors here already. Susan had joined the Auror Corps a year after he and Hermione had. He had never seen the other four on his floor so they were either Hit Wizards, Crime Scene Analysts or from Magical Forensics.

"Let's go." Neville said, "We have wasted too much time already. Cast your notice me nots and lets get in the building."

The Wizards cast the disillusionment charms and the notice me not spells and made their way across the street to what Harry had deduced was an orphanage. Unidentified Magic at an orphanage, could this be a sign or a link to the case they were already on.

The Group of Wizards split in two, Harry and Susan decided to find a back door into the building with the other two wizards who had shown up while Hermione and Neville entered through the front door with the other wizard and witch.

Harry and his group entered through the first door that they found at the back of the building. Casting a non verbal _alohomora_ the group entered the building, ever vigilant.

Harry took the lead and cast a 22 _silencio_ in the corridor so the sound of their footsteps would not be heard. The building looked old, and the flooring was wooden and the looks of it really old as well. It wouldn't do for a light sleeper or someone who was awake to figure out that they were there.

They walked the length of the corridor and soon came to a set of double doors which seemed to open into a courtyard of sorts.

"The rooms are empty" Susan whispered to him, "they are classrooms." she further added.

"Seems obvious for them to be empty then this time of the day." Harry said, under his breath earning a smack on his shoulder for the remark.

One of the Hit Wizards silently sniggered but was quickly silenced by the other.

Susan walked ahead of Harry and waved her wand in a pattern he was all too familiar with, " _Magi Revelare_ " she all but whispered the spell. For a second it felt as if nothing happened then the tip of Susan's wand glowed for a second or so before she turned to face Harry with surprise and a hint of fear etched on her face.

"Sixteen" she whispered.

Harry quickly did the math in his head. Susan had picked up on the presence of sixteen magical individuals, seven of whom she could account for.

"The other nine have a very small magical core though." She said answering the question he was about to ask.

"Children?" He asked.

"Seems like it." she answered, as they took a turn to walk up the stairs which they believed would lead them to the dormitories.

One by one the Aurors scanned the top three floors but didn't see or find anything out of the ordinary. Susan and Harry found seven of the magical children sleeping in their rooms they were about to inspect the last couple of rooms on the third floor when they received a patrons for Hermione. A silver otter, which spoke with Hermione's voice "Nothing on the first two floors except for magical children. Analysts making copy of all available documents on children and the caretakers. Informed the Department of Magical Law Enforcements to post round the clock guard detail. Clearing building in five minutes."

Harry and Susan exchanged a glance, and cast the revelation spell on the last set of rooms. Accounting for the other two magical signatures.

Within five minutes, the Aurors disapparated and then re-apparated behind the dumpsters. Hermione, Neville and the other witch and wizard were already there when Harry and Susan's crew got there.

"Robert, you and Nora wait here for the DMLE Guards and Protection specialists while the rest of us head back to Headquarters to file the initial report." Hermione said, turning to the witch and wizard in her company.

She then nodded towards Harry's team and together the six of them disapparated only to appear a couple of seconds later at the Auror Division of the Ministry of Magic.

The Two Hit Wizards had apparated to their own departmental office to complete their own paperwork leaving the four Aurors to file their own initial report.

The four friends from school walked towards one of the conference rooms in the almost empty Auror office, where only a couple of on duty Aurors who they didn't really know were lounging away waiting for their shift to be over.

Neville opened the door to the first conference room they came across, opened the door and waved his wand to switch on the lights holding the door open for the rest of the investigative team to enter.

Hermione took the chair at the head of the table, while Susan occupied the chair on her right leaving Neville and Harry to take the chairs on her left. Hermione pulled out a glass pad, lined with a silver frame out and kept it at the centre of the table.

She then waved her hand and the board lit up, filling the room with the projection of the nine unidentified magical cores.

"How did you get a copy of the Analyst's notes?" Neville asked, arching his brow.

"I used the duplication spell when she was busy performing her analysis." Hermione said, pulling one of the projected cores towards her and then pulling at it to expand the initial deductions performed by the magical device.

"Is that even legal ?" Susan questioned, surprised at Hermione's impassive candor.

"They should have made the device duplication proof." Hermione said, nonchalantly skimming over the automated notes.

"I think i'll drop a note to Anthony on that one." Harry said which earned him a glare from Hermione.

"Anonymously of-course." Harry further added, sure that a couple of sweat beads had formed on his forehead from Hermione's menacing stare.

The group sat in silence writing their individual reports and analysis from the crime scene, while Hermione continued her analysis observing one core after the other. It was after what felt like half an hour that Hermione made a sound which clearly meant she was surprised.

"Did you find something?" Susan asked her in between a yawn, looking up from the piece of parchment where she was penning down her analysis and observations from the crime scene.

"I believe so." Hermione answered, and then proceeded to drag two other cores in addition to the one that she was currently observing to the centre of the table.

"Notice anything?" she asked the group which consisted of three really sleepy aurors.

Harry tried to observe what he should be looking for but all he saw was three slightly pulsating silver blue orbs roughly 5 inches in diameter. They looked all the same to him, even the energy that they were pulsating with seemed to be in sync.

Harry was about to share his observation but Susan beat him to it. "They look all the same to me, i don't see any differences."

"Exactly." Hermione said, as if she was experiencing a eureka moment.

The three Aurors exchanged glances between themselves before Harry looked straight at his brunette sister and gathered the courage to ask, "Care to explain 'Mione."

Hermione all but harrumphed.

"They are all the same. Pulsating with the same energy." she reiterated but she only drew further blank looks. Realizing that they were getting any where she picked her wand and pointed it an Harry and Neville. Before the boys even realized what was happening or could draw their wands out, Hermione had hit them with a charm which put them in a state of shock as if something was taken out of their body.

Taken aback, the boys were surprised to see two more orbs at the centre of the table. They were near similar in size with Harry's being slightly bigger, it was silver in color and was pulsating with an emerald green and dark copper energy pulse while Neville's was a bottle green lined with deep blue veins beating with a constant Rhythm.

"Now?" she asked, leaning in expectantly.

"Magical cores are not the same." Susan answered, stating the obvious.

"Precisely" Hermione answered with an accomplished look on her face. She reminded Harry of Horace Slughorn when every time someone got a potion right or when someone brought him his favorite chocolates.

"Then how are these the same ?" Neville asked reaching out to one of the core readings.

"Now that is the question we need to get answered." Hermione said in a small voice, her sense of accomplishment at educating her friends falling deep into the pits of tartarus at Neville's obvious and expectant follow up question.

"Can you run these against existing readings of Magical Cores? Maybe that will help us further deduce why they all look the same or what the state of the cores symbolizes." Susan asked.

"Not without tipping of Auror R&D or Magical Forensics." Hermione answered.

"Are you telling me the brightest witch of her age can't hack into the Magical Centrum." Harry asked, arching his brow in question. A smirk playing on his lips.

Hermione gave him an annoyed look which was enough to tell him to shut up.

"Well then it seems we'd have to let the analysts come back to us on this one with further analysis and research." Neville said, pushing his chair back and getting up from the table.

Susan and Harry too pushed back while Hermione deactivated her AMRA (Automatic Magical Reconnaissance Analysis) Device.

"I know there is something unnatural about it, I just can't figure out the How of it." Hermione complained as they exited the Conference room with Susan and Neville in the lead and Harry bringing up the rear with Hermione.

It was then that a thought struck Harry but he decided to keep it to himself. It wouldn't do any good in telling Hermione. Unlike other people Hermione only needed the sliver of a hint to make her go into a complete analytical frenzy.

"I'll see you tomorrow at the debriefing then" Harry told her as they exited the elevator heading to separate floos to go back home.

"Yeah, Good Night."

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Reviews always Help. If you read till here, i think i deserve a couple of words of appreciation. :)


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